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Friday, 11 July 2014

Council of war June 14: Game 3 Doubles 1500

The third game of Council of War and this one’s different to the first
two, this is a doubles game. The army consists of 1500 points split however you
want between the two players. It must have two armies included so you can’t
just have a single force org and split the units, each player must have their
own units. The game is Eldar and Iyanden vs Iyanden and blood angels, with
Purge the alien mission.

When making your force the rules weren’t clear, you are just use
allies, but as we where both taking Eldar we emailed GW and asked if we can use
allies or if we have to have 2 CAD detachments, and we were allowed to ally, so
we did.

Instead of
using allies our opponents used two combined arms detachments to get more heavy
support choices.

Combined
Arms Detachment: Iyanden

Farseer

Death
mission, guide, doom, fortune

6 rangers

15 Guardians

Star cannon

Wraithknight
(warlord: feel no pain)

Suncannon,
scatter shield, scatter laser

3 War
walkers

6x bright
lance

Combined
Arms Detachment: Blood angels

Librarian

Force sword

5 scouts

Sniper
rifles

5 scouts

Sniper rifles

Storm Raven

Assault
cannon, multi-melta

Storm Raven

Assault
cannon, multi-melta

The Mission

This mission is Purge the alien, so just murder the other team.
Deployment was vanguard strike (surprise, surprise). Rolling for who deploys
first we win and select to deploy first. We placed both wraithknights on the
left flank ready to plough forwards, and in the middle we deployed the
wraithblades to they can push forwards. On the right behind a ruin we put both
the wraith lord and my wave serpent. The spiritseer and farseer join the
wraithblades. We keep the guardians in reserve.

To counter us they place the guardians in a crater and the war walkers
hidden in the middle. Behind the walkers they place their wraithlord. At the
back on his own the librarian goes for some reason. They then infiltrate
rangers on the left and both scout units in the ruins to the right of our
deployment zone. In reserve both of the storm ravens stay.

Steal the initiative: No

Night Fight: No

The Battle

Eldar/Iyanden turn 1

Not wasting and time we push both of the wraithknights forwards, the
D-cannon one attempts to see the opposing wraithknight while the other jumps up
a building. On the right the wraithlord goes after the scouts with its flamers
and the wave serpent moves back to support it. The wraithblades moves up the
middle.

Psychic phase and we attempt to cast quicken on the blades but they
deny it, so the farseer casts shrouding.

Shooting phase and the wraithlord flames the closest scouts but only
manages to kill 3. My wraithlord shoots at the enemy one, hoping to get lucky
and instant-kill it but I only manage to strip a single wound, better than
nothing. Wanting to get first blood the wave serpent finishes off the wounded
scouts getting first blood. Running, the wraithblades move a whole 1 inch. The
other wraithlord shoots at the war walkers but they manage to save 2 pens with
their force field.

Us: 2 – Them: 0

Iyanden/Blood turn 1

Their wraithknight move straight to mine wanting revenge for the
damage inflicted upon it. The war walkers move back a little.

Psychic phase and they roll a 6 for dice, and attempt to cast fortune
on the wraithknight but we throw a lot of dice to deny it. They then cast guide
on the guardians, not worried about that.

Sniper snots from the scouts targets the wraithlord but fail to do
anything to it, the guardians star cannon targets it as well but he proves too
tough to be wounded by the shots. Wanting him dead the war walkers all shoot at
him and kill him off. Using its suncannon the wraithknight targets the purple
knight and manages to get 2 wounds on it!

Assault phase and the wraithknight charges into our purple knight and
just gets lucky, his hammer of wrath does a wound then he punches mine knight
into the floor while I miss all of my attacks. That could have gone better...

Us: 2 – Them: 2

Eldar/Iyanden turn 2

The wraithblades move as fast as possible towards the enemy
wraithknight, it must be stopped and they have to axe it a question. Jumping
down from its perch our remaining wraithknight goes after the war walkers, 6
strength 8 shots must be stopped as well. The wave serpent moves a little to
try and get out of sight of any incoming fliers.

The powers of the warp betray us as we only get 1 extra dice and then
we proceed to fail every psychic test. Never mind.

Firing everything it has the wave serpent shoots at the scouts but
only manages to kill 2 of them. They hold.

Assault phase and the fun begins, the wraithblades charge into the
wraithknight with no problem, he attacks first stomping a single blade flat,
but they then deal a wound back. In the centre the wraithknight charges into
the war walkers and only manages to wreck a single one.

Us: 2 – Them: 2

Iyanden/Blood turn 2

In from reserve comes a single storm raven and it goes straight for
the wave serpent, the scouts not wanting another volley from the wave serpent
get deeper into the ruins where they can’t be seen. The rangers move forwards
trying to get into cover. The librarian moves towards the combat between the
wraithknight and war walkers.

The only power they get off is force on the librarian.

Running the rangers make it to the tree line on the left, as do the
scouts (run that is, not make it to the trees). Firing its assault cannon,
multi-melta and 2 of its missiles, the storm raven really wants the wave
serpent dead, but the skimmer jinks and saves 2 penetrating hits. The Guardians
starcannon however manages to glance it.

Assault phase and the librarian charges into the wraithknight, not
wanting to risk the strength 5 (furious charge) librarian instantly killing the
knight we direct all attacks on him and turn him into paste, 3 wounds, all
strength 10, that's just a horrible way to die. Our knight takes no wounds from
the war walkers. In the other combat my farseer steps up and deals a single
wound to the wraithknight (only 3 left) and the knight fails to do any wounds
to the blades. They also fail but we are slowly chipping away at him.

Us: 3 – Them: 2

Eldar/Iyanden turn 3

From reserve the guardians come in on the right hidden behind the
ruin. The wave serpent turns around to face the storm raven.

Psychic phase and we attempt to give the wraithblades +1 strength but
they throw all their dice to deny it.

Shooting from the wave serpent fails to even hit the flier, and the
guardians run.

Combat and the wraithknight finally destroy all of the war walkers
letting to lose for next turn. The grind between the knight and blades ends
with a single blade dyeing.

Us: 4 – Them: 2

Iyanden/Blood turn 3

The second storm raven comes in and only moves 18 inches to face the
wraithknight who now a target. The other goes into hover mode to keep shooting
the wave serpent.

They manage to cast fortune on the wraithknight this turn, we just
couldn’t stop it.

Sniper fire from the scouts targets the wraithknight (apparently not
concerned about the guardians) and manages to rend him and get though his 5+
invulnerable. The new storm raven shoots it and deals and extra 2 wounds. On
the other side the storm raven shoots at the wave serpent but again its pilot
jinks out the way avoiding harm.

Assault phase and the blades lose a single model but the spiritseer
and farseer deal a wound each reducing the knight to a single wound!

Us: 4 – Them: 2

Eldar/Iyanden turn 4

Intent on getting rid of the scouts the guardians enter into the ruin
ready to attack. The wraithknight moves towards the guardians and the wave
serpent has no reason to move so stays put.

Psychic phase again does nothing.

Throwing a plasma grenade, the guardian hits the wall of the ruin and
it bounces back killing 2 of his squad mates instead. The survivors shoot their
catapults and kill 1 enemy. Shooting from the wave serpent this time causes a
single glance on the storm raven. The enemy guardians are rather clustered so
make a perfect target for the suncannon, scatter laser first kills 1 but then
the blast manages to kill 3 more (damn cover save). End of the phase and the
guardians run for it!

Assault phase and the guardians charge into the scouts and beat them
down to 1 model but take no damage. The lone scout holds. The blade and knight
carries on doing nothing thanks to his damn fortune but we take no damage
either.

Us:4 – Them: 2

Iyanden/Blood turn 4

Both storm ravens go into hover mode, and the one which has been hassling
the wave serpent moves to target the wraithknight. The farseer and guardians
rally.

Thinking clearly now the panic is over, the farseer casts doom on our
wraithknight which we fail to stop, and then death mission (we let it though).

Both storm ravens target the wraith knight but even with all that fire
power only a single wound manages to get past its invulnerable save.

Assault and the guardians lose a single model to the cornered scout
who lashes out desperately. The guardians fail to do anything to him though but
hold thankfully. The combat that has been going on forever finally ends with
the blades hacking the ankles off the wraithknight, gaining us a kill point and
slay the warlord. They then consolidate up into their deployment zone.

the storm ravens are off their bases for ease at this point

Us: 6 – Them: 2

Eldar/Iyanden turn 5

With a hovering storm raven so close to the wraithknight, it makes
such a tempting target which we go for. The wave serpent moves its attention to
the rangers who are in our deployment zone. We talk about this, and we could
send the blades towards the guardians to try and kill them, but chances are we
will fail the charge and risk getting killed by a hail of rending shots and
then possible die to the death mission farseer. So we just move deeper into
their deployment zone and out of range of the guardians.

For fun we attempt to cast hallucinate on the guardians and we manage
to get it though, reducing their WS and BS by -1.

Shooting from the wave serpent manage to kill 4 rangers but the last 2
hold their ground.

Assault and the wraithknight charges into the storm raven, it manages
to rip through its armour and detonate its ammo supply, exploding the flier. In
a less dramatic manor, the guardians knife the last scout in the shadows of the
ruin.

Us: 8 – Them: 2

Iyanden/Blood turn 5

The guardians attempt to move towards the blades in a desperate hope
to charge them.

The last storm raven targets the wraithknight but just can’t get any
wounds through.

Unsurprisingly the guardians fail their 12 inch charge.

We roll to see if the game carries on, it doesn’t. So the farseer dies
at the end of the game and gives up an extra kill point.

That game went a lot better than I thought it would, with the enemy having
2 fliers and our army seriously lacking in any good anti-air I thought they
would just stay back, avoid the wraith blade and kill us with fliers. This was
not the case though, and why they went into hover mode next to a wraithknight I
will never know.

This was the last game on day 1 and it wasn’t the most enjoyable, we
had constant rules arguments with the blood angel player and the opposing Eldar player trying to play a few
rules wrong. Now if it was an honest mistake that’s fine, but with there being
so many and then practically having a little tantrum after we showed him the
correct wording of the rules, it just spoilt the game a little. The battle
brother wasn’t much different but at least has given me an idea for a future
rules post.

The last tournament I went to the same thing happened game 3 with my
opponent getting a little moody, maybe it’s me, or maybe it’s the long day that
does it to people. I’m not sure. This isn’t really a proper post game analysis
as I won’t be using his list ever again; it was just a bit of fun, seeing if
all the wraithblades would be any good, they were ok considering they went up
against a T 8 monster.

Next game took up all of Day 2, the 8k a side BIG game. Come back next
Friday to check it out.